Christe Regians open school year with ‘museum tour’

Hundreds of students visited from June 6 to 7 the Samar Archaeological & Cultural Museum in Samar, which was founded by the late Polish-born missionary Fr. Cantius J. Kobak, OFM. CARL JAMIE BORDEOS

CALBAYOG City, Samar – Students of Christ the King College (CKC), Region 8’s oldest Catholic school, received a different kind of treat from the officers of both the Senior and Junior Highschool Supreme Student Government when CKC officially opened its doors for another school year.

Hundreds of students visited from June 6 to 7 the Samar Archaeological & Cultural Museum, which was founded by the late Polish-born missionary Fr. Cantius J. Kobak, OFM.

HSSSG Officers volunteered to be tour guides, giving details about the life of Kobak, his archaeological discoveries on the island of Samar, as well as his efforts to translate into English some Spanish books from 17th century Samar.
“It’s really amazing!” said HSSSG president Charles Arais, noting the works and contributions of the priest-scholar, who was from the Assumption Province of Pulaski, Wisconsin and who taught at CKC from 1959 to 1970.

Students got to see wooden images recovered from historic places on the island, a candelabra, a chalice, and a ‘retablo’ (old altar) recovered by Kobak when the Calbayog Cathedral was renovated in the 1960s.

After touring a total of 11 batches, Jeffrey Zosa, one of the 20 HSSSG officers, exclaimed, “I enjoyed being a tour guide!”

Kobak, who was born in Poland in 1930, and migrated to the United States in 1937 where he finished all his studies until he became an OFM Franciscan, is widely known in the academic community as the “Historian of Samar’”. He left precious items from Samar’s past which he recovered from his archaeological trips, some from ancient burial sites on the island. CBCPNews